Newcombe and Newcombe (2001) found contact with the target L2 to be
crucial in language study perseverance in multilingual contexts. In their study of adult
Welsh learners, anticipation of opportunities to practice correlated with course completion,
and actual opportunities to practice – complemented by support from native Welsh
speakers – correlated with use of the target language several months after course
completion. To summarise, learners continue to study and use the language because of
meaningful relationships based in the target language, a measure of the strength of social
networks and an inherent piece of L2 learners’ self-concept.